Visualisation Matters: Putting the human in the loop

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Monthly Archives: November 2016

To do interactive visualisation you need an input device – fairly obvious statement but often been ignored and just the humble keyboard and mouse are used. Although, there are many novel devices over the decade last year we have brought one of the Wing devices a combined joystick and mouse. This was linked to the Drishti volume visualiser with a python layer that would then calibrate and smooth interactions allowing for different rates of response.

This means one single hand of a user has a 6DOF (degree of freedom): allowing for x-y-z along with roll-pitch-yaw operations.So you can move and rotate an object in one smooth operation. The other hand can be used to hold your coffee cup.

Control of an objects clipping plane – rotation allows the angle of the clipping-plane to be changed and the x direction moves the clipping-plane in the normal direction cropping the required part of the volume datasets.

Controlling a light source; where rotation controls the direction that the virtual light source points and x-y controls the colour of the light as described by a colour wheel.

Controlling viewing between multiple transfer functions: so moving in x direction blends between one of a list of pre-defined transfer functions.

Controlling various parameters on a transfer function’s curves and points.

Next question was if you could have two Wing devices you now have >12 DOF available simultaneously in movements of two hands.

MT

Poster and stand at the ToScA 2016 event held in the University of Bath, September 2016.